Why Christianity Bugs People

Why Christianity Bugs People—Especially Christians. As a professor of World Religions I field many discussion posts about religion. I know that fewer and fewer people in our society understand the basics of the Christian religion. That doesn’t bother me. It is my job to help them gain understanding through the textbook (Huston Smith’s classic: The World’s Religions) and my lectures. What tempts me to withdraw from society and become a desert monk is this: most who claim to be Christians do not know their own faith, the faith that Jesus and the apostles promoted at the cost of their lives. In my courses I try to distinguish between Christianity as a popular religion and the Good News as Jesus presented it. I refer to this original Christianity as the Way of Jesus just to make my point. Christianity is what Jesus said and what those who knew him heard from his own lips. Over the centuries his ideas have been “improved upon” by well-meaning followers so that one now needs to peel back layers of interpretation designed to deepen our understanding. That is a legitimate enterprise. But in my view the average person in our culture, even among church attenders, has a distorted view of what Jesus actually taught. What follows may be simplified but it is not simplistic. I want to get to the heart of the matter. In one sentence I assert this: Christianity has become a religion rather than a unique way of life. It may well be the most misunderstood movement on earth. Christianity the religion is fairly easy to live with. The Way of Jesus is not. It upsets every life it touches. As a popular religion Christianity is just another path to God. You believe in God as creator. You try to live by his instructions—mainly the Ten Commandments. If you are nice and polite God will answer your prayers and then you will have a nice life. No need to go overboard here. Nothing embarrassing. Or threatening to your plan for your life. You want God on your side. Maybe you read the Bible, maybe not much. Maybe you go to worship with others (church), maybe not or not much. As long as you are a mostly decent person and agree that God exists and that Jesus taught the truth and made a way to heaven, you are good-to-go. Not so fast. This is more like Islam than Christianity. But it is what most people, Christians and non-Christians, believe. Contrast this with what the message of the Way of Jesus truly is. 1. You are not good in God’s holy eyes and you have no chance of making it to heaven by being a good person. None. All people keep on sinning in the sense of falling short of God’s standards. That shows we are sinful to the core, not just weak people who commit a sin here and there now and again. 2. There is no way you can balance the scales and thus make the grade. The standard is sinless perfection, not trying your best. Illustration: some rock climbers climb cliffs (like Half Dome in Yosemite National Park) without ropes. Such freestyle climbing requires zero mistakes. You cannot do it if you are missing an arm or leg. Humans climbing the cliff to heaven can never reach that destination on their own because we start off as cripples to begin with. 3. The whole Gospel message tells of how God reaches down to save us from inevitable destruction. We must trust him and him alone to carry us. We are as helpless as a paraplegic is in a Triathlon. Some severely handicapped people have completed a triathlon. But someone else did all the work for them. That’s what Jesus, the Son of God, does for anyone who will yield to him. Check out Dick and Rick Hoyt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH943Az_lPQ) for an example that illustrates what I am saying. 4. When you embrace this it is like being born all over again into a new life. God gives himself completely to you—every breath you take, every neuron that fires in your brain is a gift God gives you just because he cares. On this basis God requires that you live for him every moment of every day 100%. You cannot wait to find out everything God wants you to become and everything God wants you to do. You are united with him. God’s goals are your goals. God’s desires are your desires. God’s plans are your plans. It is to be 100% God and zero percent anything else. You are going to stumble on this track; you are going to want to quit. You are going to suffer hardship just like a marathon runner does, but you are not going to give up or take an easier route. You may even get killed, just like a solider serving his country. But that does not matter. God promises he will get you to the goal no matter what—and the finish line, the goalpost, is in heaven. 5. To stay fit and on course you are going to think of Jesus every day. You are going to love reading his words and those of his first followers of the Way in the book called the New Testament. You are going to find yourself thinking of him many, many times each day and you are going to listen to him and speak to him in prayer—in fact your attitude will be like that of mother with a newborn—you will always be alert for his voice. You will fail in this process many times, but God is for you. 6. You are going to carry out his mission. He will use you, usually in partnership with others who are sold out to him. You will agree that all your time is his, that all your energy is his, that all your money is his. So you are going to give 10% of your money at the start and a lot more as you advance, as a general rule. You are going to join with others to pray, to grow in understanding, and to serve on the Lord’s Day and at many other times. You are always on duty—just as you would be if you were a parent or a spouse. You are in battle 24/7 while you live on earth. Jesus will give you time to rest and be refreshed. But your life, your time, your treasure are all provided by him and for his cause.It takes time to grow to this level. But that is your goal. 7. This life will produce a sense of joy you won’t believe. You will know this is what you were created for. To love, to serve, to enjoy God’s presence is your highest fulfillment. God created you for this. You will know that your reason for existence is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever. And you will gladly pour out your life into other people. Of course people who have not been transformed by this grace and power of God will not understand. To them you are now a fanatic. They think you are now too religious, when in truth you are not religious at all. It is not about religion. It is not about trying to do enough or be good enough to get goodies from God, the Great Vending Machine in the Sky. If you follow the Way of Jesus this world is no longer your home. You are not there yet. But God is transforming you little by little. You enjoy what God gives you and you struggle with the mess and heartaches. You enter the sufferings of Jesus. But you are looking for a kingdom whose builder and maker is God—a home eternal in the heavens. He’s leaving the light on for you. That is enough.